Headed to KC for more cx racing. Michael Dixon and I were the only Nebraskans racing on Saturday in Topeka. Brutal and fun course, with thick power-sucking grass, several climbs and a very difficult run-up followed by a fun but tricky off camber descent. Entered the 50+, and we were in a heat with the other masters riders (30+, 40+, and 60+). 30+/40+ started 30 seconds ahead of us. I started easy because I knew the course would eat people alive. I was in second on the first lap and did the run-up. Shouldered the bike and must have bounced it because I dropped a chain. Lost 10 seconds to the leader. Started chasing and gradually reeled in the leader (Paul Fancher) a lap and half later. Paul started to gradually wear down during the next lap. I was putting 3 seconds into him on the run-up and a couple more seconds on each climb. Won the 50+ by 25 seconds and finished second overall in the heat. Steve Songer won the 40+ and was probably 1-1.5 minutes ahead of me.
Sunday brought one of the best races in the midwest for pure fun: Boulevard Cup. Free food and beer will tend to do that (8 kegs worth of beer brought to the race!). Didn't feel too bad after yesterday's effort, so I thought I had a pretty good shot at winning. Big masters field: 12 in 30+, 24 in 40+, 25 in 50+ and 10 in 60+, promising a big mess trying to pass slower riders. Course was tougher than last year and much longer, close to the legal limit of 3.5 km. Had a poor start and was 7th entering the holeshot. Fancher got a great start and had 5 seconds on me by the time we got to the first set of boards. We caught up with the tail of the 40+ at a very bad spot-a twisty entrance to a sand pit. Luckily, I saw it was a disaster early, dismounted and ran passed all of the riders struggling to ride through the mess. Hammering the road section and the climbs, weaving though the slower riders, I brought the leader back and proceeded to grind out another win by at least 30 seconds. With a half lap to go, I caught the second place 30+ guy and had him sitting on my wheel, then outsprint me at the finish. Well, he sprinted-I sat up to go in alone. Can't understand why he did that-I wasn't in his race and made up a minute on him during the race. Caught all but 7 guys in the entire heat, even those that started 30 seconds and 1 minute ahead, so a nice race.
A lot of NE people came down Sunday: Rich Pearson and Craig Schmidt were in my heat; Rich easily won the 60+ (would have been fun to have him in my race), Craig finished well in the 40+ race. Jonathan Neve raced 4s and finished 16th (great result-44 starters in that one). Rafal Doloto raced SS and cat 3 and looked great out there. Noah Marcus raced 3s and finished 6th (I think-sorry if I screwed that up Noah), Sydney Brown easily won the women's open, and there were some sterling performances in the men's open. Mark Savery and Matt Tillinghast finished 4th and 5th against brutal competition, battling with Brian Jensen for 3rd place after Jeff Winkler and Shadd Smith managed to get a gap over them. The 3rd place battle was great bike racing, Mark, Matt and Jensen trading 3rd back and forth, finally being decided by Jensen's massive surge on the road section at the beginning of the last lap. Troy Krause finished in the top ten-chased Bill Marshall and another guy, only 5-7 seconds behind, and could not quite reel them in by the end. Nate Woodman had a subpar day, but looked great bunny-hopping the boards during the race. I'll have some photos up on Facebook soon.
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